Many bailed-out banks still contributing to campaign funds

[G_j]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Donating_for_dollars_Bailedout_banks_donate_0322.html

Donating for dollars? Many bailed-out banks still contributing to campaign funds
Jeremy Gantz
Published: Sunday March 22, 2009


The federal bank bailouts may have given new meaning to the term "kickback."

Many of the banks rescued last year with taxpayer money have contributed to the campaign coffers of some politicians who approved the bailouts, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. And party affiliation appears to have little to do with the donations.

While some bailed-out banks, such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, have reduced their campaign donations, others have discreetly made donations this year, Newsweek reported. Bank of America's political action committee (PAC) gave $24,500 in January and February, "including $1,500 to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and another $15,000 to members of the House and Senate banking panels," the weekly newsmagazine said.

"This certainly appears to be a case of TARP funds being recycled into campaign contributions," Newsweek quoted Brett Kappell, a D.C. lawyer who tracks donations, as saying.

Citigroup, which has received a total of $45 billion in federal aid, donated $29,620 to members of Congress, including $2,500 to House GOP Whip Eric Cantor. In February, the U.S. government boosted its stake in the troubled financial firm to 36 percent – a move that aimed to avoid nationalization of Citi, once the world's biggest financial firms. Analysts said the conversion gives the government effective control as the bank's largest shareholder.

Cantor, who like nearly all of his GOP colleagues opposed the stimulus plan, also received $10,000 from Swiss banking giant UBS, which got $5 billion in federal bailout funds via AIG as one of the scandal-ridden insurance companies' "counterparties." In February, UBS agreed to pay U.S. authorities $780 million in fines, penalties and restitution and hand over customer details to settle charges of tax fraud in the United States that threatened the bank's existence.

..more..

[acmavm]

1. Damn, we should just hang our heads in shame...

<snip>

Bank of America's political action committee (PAC) gave $24,500 in January and February, "including $1,500 to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and another $15,000 to members of the House and Senate banking panels," the weekly newsmagazine said.

<snip>

Beacon to the world my dying ass. We are a fucking joke.

Democracy? HELL FUXKING NO! It a Payocracy.

[Bozita]

2. The word "payola" was coined over 50 years ago.

Prescient.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Politicians take bribes..er..campaing contributions from bankers? Water is wet.